Russia has produced a witty satire about Ukraine's ambivalent relationship
with the EU

There was a time, in the days of the old Soviet Union, when we used to scorn the Russian media as purveyors of leaden and humourless propaganda. But as our own media continue to report on the current Ukraine crisis, without ever seeming to understand how this was triggered by all those provocative moves being made to absorb into the EU a country that was for so long part of Russia, it is salutary to see a witty little Russian film that conveys precisely the reality of how Ukraine was lured into this mess, which we in the West seem determined to ignore.

The video is watchable onRichard North’s EU Referendum blog. It opens with a prinked-up Baroness Ashton in the EU’s “ring of stars”, holding out an enticing jar of cookies, which she places on top of a tall fridge. A Ukrainian piggy makes ever more desperate efforts to climb up to it, or pull it down, each time ending in frustration.

Finally, the cartoon dissolves into a film sequence showing a glowing Ashton being mobbed by a huge crowd of Ukrainians, chanting in unison: “Europe, Europe”. At last the piggy manages to pull down the cookies, but the empty jar falls over his head like a goldfish bowl, leaving him trapped and unable to eat. A neat piece of satire that says more about how this sad shambles came about than anything we see in the West.